Pierre,
We looked at the iFly very closely too but have chosen to purchase an iPad. The main reason is that iFly is controlled by one person. Having been an early Blue Mountain Avionics customer, we learned about putting all our marbles in one place! However, we did go out and fly with a sectional and a cardboard mask the size of the iFly screen and noted that the amount of chart displayed is more than you can see when at 7000 ft. iFly is $90/year for updates (including IFR Enroutes).
There are several solutions for the iPad. And there will likely be more as time goes by. We are planning on Skycharts which costs $20/year (the author actively participates on this forum). If you get a 3G iPad it has GPS built in and does not require a 3G subscription. We've added a router to our home PC and will upload data to the iPad here. When airborne the iPad will use GPS for positioning and all charts will be in memory. Of course the iPad does other things too, so we anticipate having checklists (certainly those we don't have on our GRT) and weight & balance. Probably will use it to get weather when away from home.
iPad comes with a 14 day return policy (10% restock fee) and iFly comes with 30 day return. So when our iPad arrives, we plan to try it. If it doesn't work out, then try the iFly.
Just another viewpoint.
Jim & Heather
Europa XS N241BW
PS The
www.adventurepilot.com website is really cool and works well. Used it to find a lunch spot yesterday!
